Question - 687

Identify the guy.

Update: Not many attempts. Note the date of the question and also the tags.

Question - 631

Today's question is courtesy Divya. Stamp in honor of whom and what particular achievement of this person does the stamp honor?

Answer: Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss aka GOD. At the ripe age of 19, Gauss showed that the 17-agon aka heptadecagon is constuctible with a compass and straight edge. This proved fortuitous for mathematics as a whole since it convinced Gauss to become a mathematician at a time when he was wavering between philology and math. He liked this result so much that he asked that a heptadecagon be inscribed in his tombstone. The mason declined since it would essentially look like a circle. Raghu, Siddarth Pai, giantamoeba, Saket, Iam, Kapinjal Chowdhury, Matti, Krithi, RJD and Rajeev got it. Well done.